Friday, January 27, 2017

The Joint Air Power Competence Center (JAPCC) is a NATO-accredited, multinational Center of Excellence (COE) based in Kalkar, Lower Rhine. The main focus of the JAPCC is the further development of the strategic / operational leadership and deployment principles for the use of NATO and JAPCC nations' airspace and space. This multi-national center of excellence, which is based on a German initiative, was launched in 2005. Since then, the JAPCC has been stimulating the further development of "Air and Space Power" through numerous concept papers and publications as well as the participation of various committees and working groups.

Thursday, January 19, 2017

This month, I published in issue 18 of The Aviation Historian magazine about the story of Dassault Mirage in Zairian Air Force (FAZA). These aircraft were often piloted by French instructor for training Zairian, but also for attack missions, notably during the second Shaba war in 1978 (or Kolwezi crisis).

Monday, January 16, 2017

On 8December 2016, pro-LNA social-media account published footage of an unused Chinese
made Type 84 remotely delivered antivehicle landmine with TYPE 122-15 ATML
rocket found in Ganfouda district in Benghazi in a place seized from BRSC
fighters few days ago. This is believed to be the first recorded use in Libya
since the 2011 uprising and first by islamist militia forces fighting the LNA.

Sunday, January 15, 2017

Today, Libyan National Army Air Force lost its sole MiG-23ML in service, serial number '26453'. According to LNA Spox, the aircraft was shot down and crashed in Ganfouda / Bosnib area in Benghazi. The pilot, Colonel Younes Aldinạli, ejected, but suffered of a broken ankle on the left foot and some bruises. MiG-23ML '26453' entered in service in February 2016 soon after the lost of three others 'Flogger' in two months. Two MiG-23BNs were added to the fleet in April and May, but serial '8985 crashed on 6 July.

Saturday, January 14, 2017

On Jan. 11, 2017, Intelligence Online — a professional journal covering the world’s intelligence services — revealed that the pilots of Air Tractor attack planes
flying from Al Khadim air base in Libya are private contractors working
for Erik Prince, the founder of the company formerly known as
Blackwater. War Is Boring’s own sources in Libya confirmed the assertion. Our sources
said that the pilots flying the United Arab Emirates Air Force IOMAX
AT-802 Air Tractors — converted crop-dusters — are mercenaries and aren’t Arabs.
Most of the for-profit aviators are American, according to IOL. Prince denied involvement in the UAE air operations.

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Fresh fighting would pit the Libyan National Army against the Government of National Accord

by Wolfgang Pusztai and Arnaud Delalande

Beginning in December 2016, the Saraya Defend Benghazi — also known as Benghazi Defense Brigade — an Islamist militia group that formed in June 2016 to oppose Gen. Khalifa Haftar’s Tobruk-based Libyan National Army, was involved in the attack on facilities in Libya’s Oil Crescent.

The LNA decisively repulsed the attacks. But the wider conflict is only deepening — and could spark a new civil war in Libya pitting the two major claimants to the country’s leadership. Haftar and his allies in Tobruk on one side. On the other, the Government of National Accord in Tripoli.

Resource constraints on both sides could head off further fighting — assuming the local allies of both Haftar and the GNA behave themselves.

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

An Iraqi Army Aviation Mi-35M crashed near Baiji this morning killing the four crew members : Pilot Mojtaba Kazazi Hilal, Lieutenant Hussein Kamel, Joey Omar Arif, Weapons technician Jabbar. The 35th Attack Squadron of Iraqi Army Aviation lost four others Mi-35M
before, one crashed at Al-Saqlawiyah near Fallujah on 16 June 2014
and another was shot down on 3 October 2014 by a FN-6 MANPADS between
Baiji and al-Senniyah. On 4 November, a pilot managed to make an
emergency landing after beeing wounded by ground fire west of Ramadi. The
helicopter and its crew were safe. On 22 August 2015, Mi-35M serial “YI-361” has made an emergency
landing in a safe area west of Samarra after hit a power line. The crew
was wounded and the helicopter suffered damages after starting to burn. On 4 April 2016, another Hind crashed near al-Kut airbase injuring the two crew members. On mid-2013, a contract was signed for an order of 28 Mi-35M and
fifteen Mi-28NE helicopters. Twenty units have been already delivered
into five batches of four : first in November 2013, the last on 26th
August 2015. The fifteen remaining helicopters are in service with 35th
Attack Squadron.